How to Use the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console
Your small business website is crucial to your sales. If people can’t find pages of your website on the Internet, you don’t exist.
One reason that website users can’t find your pages and services is that they aren’t showing up in the Google Search Results. Now, however, there is an easy way for you to ensure web pages show up in search results using the Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool.
Google released this tool last year to help website owners ensure web pages are indexed and can be found. Being indexable is a crucial part of search engine optimization (SEO). Google uses “Googlebot” which crawls through the web to index URLs which make them available in search results. Google crawls through your website and detects errors to make sure they meet Google’s guidelines for indexing.
You can submit your sitemap through Search Console so that the Googlebot can analyze your website for indexing. Google Search Console then helps you optimize your website URL so they are correctly indexed.
STEP 1: Sign into GSC using a Google connected email account. (If you don’t have a gmail email or haven’t associated a non-gmail email with Google, find out how to associate an email address with a Google account…)
STEP 2: Click on the “URL Inspection” tab on the left side navigation area.
STEP 3: Paste in the URL (website address) that you want Google to index into the search box at the top of the window and hit enter on your keyboard. Google then runs an analysis based on the last crawl. The tool will tell you if the URL is on Google and if it can be found in search results. It also tells you if the page is mobile friendly.
STEP 4: Google will tell you if the page is indexed or not. If the page is not indexed, or if you would like Google to recrawl the page to pick up recent changes you have made to content or meta data, click “request indexing”. Repeat this process for each page you want indexed. (To submit an entire sitemap to Google for indexing, view these guidelines…)
If your URL is not on Google, it will tell you why it is not indexed. You will then get potential solutions to make sure your site is reachable. Problems that may be preventing your site from appearing on Google search results include server errors or an error in the index request submission which is blocking Googlebot. It may also tell you if the URL is indexed, however, certain elements of the page like a script may not be rendering correctly.
The Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool is invaluable for making sure that your business website can be found in the search engine.
Loebig Ink, LLC, can do search engine optimization on your small business website to make sure all of your pages can be found and more importantly, that they rank highly in Google for the best keywords in your industry! Call Loebig Ink, LLC at (301) 244-8324 or send us a note!. We serve the Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C. area and beyond.
